But it seems that this director has a different thing in mind

We got up early Saturday, because part of the room block we were in was the complimentary breakfast, and figured if we got there about 10 am we'd be able to eat decently before the service stopped at 10:30. It turns out everybody else attending the con had the same idea, so they were desperately overwhelmed and out of pretty much everything, including seats. We toughed it out, making do with bagels and that weird pre-made French toast patty that hotels have for breakfast services, and eventually fresh eggs came out.

In the alcove used for the breakfast service --- and in the evenings, the bar --- was also a bookshelf that offered reading to any guests, or to take-a-book, leave-a-book. One book we noticed was Mom, The Wolf Man, and Me, Norma Klein's 1972 book that is tragically not about a werewolf, but which was adapted into a TV movie in 1980 back when you could do that sort of thing. I set the book in distinctive spots so I could see whether someone else examined it, and yes, it was in good rotation all weekend. They also had the novelization of Independence Day, which is certainly the text version of the movie. I read bits of it aloud, as it really is a pile of words on a page, particularly from the ending. You may remember the ending of the movie as triumphant but with some shots of destroyed cities. The novelization goes into a little bit of detail about how this little war of the worlds had wrecked humanity, mentioning the destruction of a third of the world's housing, of ports, of harbors, of food-processing facilities and the like. It also mentions one of the characters feeling glad that the Fourth of July was no longer exclusively an American holiday. I had to note that if I wasn't mistaken the Fourth of July was already also a holiday for Liberia and the Philippines. (I was mistaken completely about Liberia, apparently, but it is Liberation Day for Rwanda and the Northern Mariana Islands. July 4th had been Republic Day in the Philippines until 1987.)

( What things do I think happened on Saturday even though they might have been Friday, actually? What did we wait an hour for only to see it cancelled from under us? What did I bury my head in my hands for at the parade? Why am I not a professional Intellivision game player? What brought the mocking of DeForest Kelley's 'molestache' into IRC? The answers may surprise you! )

Evening showed that people had picked up Mom, The Wolf Man, and Me, but put it back.

Trivia: Artistic figure skating and a world ice hockey championship appeared in the 1920 Antwerp Olympics. (Ice hockey was there for the first time, figure skating for the second.) Source: Encyclopedia of the Modern Olympic Movement, Editors John E Findling, Kimberly D Pelle.

Currently Reading: Year Zero, Rob Reid. I'm really amused by a lot of this. It's ridiculous but like a lot of comic science fiction it makes sure its loopiness all hangs together as part of the logic. Also, prankish aliens use the space afforded by junk DNA to add Rick Astley into the protagonist's genes because, well, they're like that. The book includes a playlist for the major characters, which is a fun extra little bit.

PS: Reading the Comics, February 11, 2014: Running Out Pi Edition, as I'm not finished with mathematics blogging.